User:ArtOfKannon/sandbox

Allen Vandever (born Allen Lee Vandever April 14, 1971) is an American contemporary multimedia artist and activist based out of Chicago, Illinois. He graduated from Northern State University in 1996 with a degree in Fine Arts. His creative works explore themes concerning over-population, sexuality, and eroticism. Growing up Allen was surrounded by art and artists whom would have an impact on his career. His grandmother was a painter, his father was a carpenter, and his neighbor, Calvin Schultz, created the artwork and murals for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Allen was sexually abused at the age of six and suffers from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and Dyslexia as a result. The abuse that Allen went through as a child would have also have a major impact on his artistic practice. Allen received therapy for the sexual abuse he experienced as a child during college. There he did his first series of paintings about his experience. The work from these sessions was shown at many universities and museums throughout the United States. Allen also started VARAW, Violence Acquaintance Rape Awareness Week to raise knowledge and awareness about Child Sexual Abuse. He also joined an improvisation group called Risky Business where he would perform skits on adopting healthy lifestyles. He also helped organize Teen Institute, a camp for high school students to learn how to be peer helpers and was a counselor there. Allen moved to New Orleans shortly after College where he found work at a woman's magazine called The Chalice. He spent the next three years there mastering his craft before becoming a full-time artist in 2000. Shortly after Allen moved to Chicago and started an artist space called Happy Dog. From there Allen moved to Los Angeles where he found huge success. The money made in LA afforded him the ability to move to Hawaii where he spent the next two years continuing his work as an artist and raising a family. In 2008 Allen moved back to Chicago where he quickly re-established himself in the local art community creating an organization called Team Art!. Team Art! helped artists collaborate, promote artwork, plan and execute events, and get their work shown in major art fairs around the United States. That same year Allen launched Rescue or Destroy, an art selling initiative. He launched Wear Allen Vandever in 2016, a men's fashion line in collaboration with Askarno Arthouse. That same year he co-founded Childhood Fractured, a humanities-based human rights initiative centered on exploring, defining, and preventing the sexual abuse and exploitation of children.

1998-2002: Hospice period
Allen worked in a hospice and would paint portraits of his patients that he took care of

2009-2012: Team Art Chicago
Allen Vandever hopes to revitalize the Chicago art scene through interactive performances by taking traditional two-dimensional art to the streets of Chicago. With the help of Team Art! members he will interact with people throughout the city asking whether or not they think his art is worth saving, and what do they think it’s worth. The purpose is to explore the questions: Does art have value? How do you place value on art?

2010-2016: Rescue or Destroy
Eight pairs of artists compete, tournament style, in a bi-weekly event at Gallery Bar in River North, Chicago. The events are spaced out over several months culminating in a high-profile event slated to run alongside Chicago Expo.

2014
Allen is one of the first artists to have his artwork archived through Bitcoin with Block Chain technology. Allen is part of the Hugpuddle company which archives information onto Bitcoin chains using the Apertus program.

2015: XXIV-Vandever Art Collaboration
Allen Vandever collaborated with 24 Chicago artists to make 24 different works of art.

2016
Allen partners with Askarno ArtHouse, a Chicago based apparel manufacturing company, to launch a men's clothing line based around his artwork.

2017
Urban Camouflage Fall/Winter Line

2016
Allen helps to launch a Human Rights Initiative, the foundation of this project is a series of 13 paintings each with a written narrative meant to explore the sexual abuse Allen experienced as a child. This contemporary artwork functions as a creative interface for the public to be made aware of the realities of child sexual abuse told from the male perspective and to foster constructive, critical, and positive dialogues on this topic. The artwork and their respective narratives are currently being compiled into a book.

2017
Allen and Derek partner with Awakenings Foundation, a Chicago based not-for-profit focused on the art of survivors of sexual abuse, to present a series of live painting events based on the experience of Allen's own sexual abuse. The series will run a total of 6 months from March 2017 - August 2017.